I rolled, pushed myself up, and ran.
Branches slapped at my arms and face as I crashed into the woods, not caring where I was going, only that it wasaway.My lungs burned, my legs screamed, but I didn’t slow down.
Behind me, shouting erupted.
“She’s gone!”
“Fuck!”
“After her!”
Terror lit a fire in my veins.
I ran harder.
The woods blurred around me, with trees whipping past as I ducked and stumbled and kept moving.I didn’t zigzag.I didn’t think.
Straight.
Just keep going.
Twigs snapped under my feet.Thorns tore at my skin.My breath came in ragged, painful gasps, and my chest burned like it was on fire.
They were behind me.
Not close, but close enough.
I could hear them crashing through the brush, swearing and breathing hard.
If I slowed down, I was dead.
If I fell, I was dead.
My vision tunneled, black creeping in at the edges, but I forced my legs to keep moving.I thought about nothing.Felt nothing but the ground beneath my feet and the air tearing at my lungs.
Then a break in the trees.
A road.
Hope slammed into me so hard it nearly knocked me off my feet.
I found a second wind I didn’t know I had and sprinted toward it, crashing through the last line of brush, sliding down into a shallow ditch, and scrambling up the other side.
I burst onto the road and heard it.The familiar roar of engines.
Motorcycles.
My head snapped up just in time to see two bikes rounding the curve, coming fast, and the sound ripped through the air like thunder.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
I waved my arms wildly and ran toward them, tears blurring my vision.My legs felt like jelly, every step a battle, but I didn’t stop.
The bikes skidded to a stop in front of me.
I knew them instantly.
Ender.